While Sanremo Music Festival 2020 comes to an end with tonight’s final, curiosity continues to grow regarding who will represent Italy at Eurovision.
The rules of the Italian festival, compared to other selections related to Eurovision, are less binding, as we all know.
The winner of Sanremo can refuse to sing for their country in Rotterdam. The Italian broadcaster RAI, in such a scenario, will choose another artist among the remaining 23.
In order to keep the situation under control, the channel has explicitly asked the contestants to submit a form expressing their wish to take part in the European contest.
From the official regulations:
“In the event that the winning Artist does not deliver the form within the specified time, RAI reserves the right to choose the Artist who will represent it at the Eurovision Song Contest according to its own criteria, without the aforementioned winning Artist having anything to claim.”
At one of the press conferences held during the week in Sanremo, members of the press room asked for more information on who had already signed up.
Claudio Fasulo, deputy director of the Italian public channel, revealed:
“They are all progressively signign up: two days ago forms for 16 candidates had arrived. There is an initial acceptance and then there is a form that must be delivered, but we are within the time frame. Only once the winner has abdicated [in 2016 winning band Stadio refused and RAI opted for Francesca Michielin], but the turnout for the Eurovision Song Contest stage is now total.”
With just hours left until the end of Sanremo, the race is still open. After the first three evenings Francesco Gabbani is leading the provisional ranking. The result of the live show on Saturday, which will be open to the televoters, could overturn everything.
Who would you like to see representing Italy at Eurovision 2020? Share your thoughts below!
Why all this hassle for such tacky music?
I’m not sure why my comment got held by the moderators, but I’m gonna stump for my boys PTN again. I’m sure they’d do it and almost everybody seems to like their song.
I would be very surprised if Pinguini aren’t interested. Their song is incredibly Eurovision-friendly and positive, plus it’s right around three minutes so they’d barely need to cut anything. (Interestingly enough, they would also be the second Italian act to recreate a scene from Back to the Future in their songs music video).
Part of me would like to know which 16 agreed to represent Italy at Eurovision, but part of me likes the mystery. If I had to throw darts at blind, I’d say that Elodie likely agreed, because her song is very modern and arena friendly. It was also written by Mahmood, which would likely mean that she is somewhat inspired by his success last year. I also think that the majority of younger acts (Rancore, Elettra, Riki, Alberto, Giordana, Achille, ect.) more than likely signed on, while I am skeptical about seasoned veterans over 50 years old. ESC is a… Read more »
i think Elodie too, the producer it’s the same of Mahmood, the past year have pay all in Tel aviv: Elettra Lamborghini i have suspicius in her she is very rich can pay all too and some years ago she declareted want take part at esc, and his partecipation in sanremo was very suspicius seem she go to for esc partecipation
What if Francesco wins, declines, and then the Lamborghinis make a huge “donation” to RAI?
soldi soldi, it’s not a mistery the esc partecipation form Italy is payed by the music house farm, rai spend a cost and the music house spend other, many singers have little house music and dont want and dont can pay for the hotels, air…. the manager of elodie is very rich but have pay for the last year because mahmood is from this manager too, Elettra his very rich and can pay for everything, and her partecipation is very strange to me very suscpicius, her is in sANREMO ONLY FOR THE ESC
I was only joking, but…you never know.
I still think Stadio with “Un Giorno mi dirai” would have done really well/stand out in 2016 when we had so many radio pop/souless entries.
Well if I had to guess who agreed, and given that Levante has a tour during the Eurovision week, I would say that the following ones have agreed:
Francesco Gabbani
Pinguini Tattici Nucleari
Elodie
Alberto Urso
Diodato
Achille Lauro
Riki
Elettra Lamborghini
Le Vibrazioni
Rancore
Junior Cally
Anastasio
Enrico Nigiotti
Raphael Gualazzi
Giordana Angi
Piero Pelu
I’m not so sure about Francesco Gabbani and Rapahel Gualazzi
I feel like Gualazzi did but maybe Gabbani didn’t.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they both accepted. Raphael seemed to have a good time in 2011, and Francesco seems easy-going enough to take the chance and just enjoy the ride, having maybe learned a few lessons from 2017.
Raphael must’ve had the time of his life in 2011. No pressure since Italy had been gone for so long and nobody expected his song to win, only to wind up in second place! And he had an amazing song, too. He’s nowhere near close enough to win this thing, but push comes to shove, his song is a bop and I’ve enjoyed seeing it at Sanremo.
I quite like Viceversa, and you may be right about Francesco not caring about results in the first place, but I’m not sure if it would be as successful.
Christian please clarify. When an artist submits a form (like the 16 that already have), are they saying that they definitely want to participate in Eurovision? Or does the form basically lets RAI know whether say 1) are or 2) are not interested, so that only some of the 16 are saying yes and some saying no?
rai asked at all the 24 singer (now remain 23 Morgan was disqualif) to sign in case of the sanremo victory they partecipate in esc too, only 16 singers have signed it, the singers dont have signed but in case of victory of sanremo they dont go in Rotterdam, go in rotter the 1 runner up or the 2 second runner up if they have signed with they surname and name
Submitting the form is basically saying yes to Eurovision.
I don’t think Gabbani would do Eurovision again, or at least not now. He was a fan favourite in 2017 and there was too much hype around him, which put him under pressure. Eventually, he ended up in 6th place, which is a very respectable result. Still, one could see that both he and the Italian delegation were kind of disappointed, which is normal after soo much hype. As much as I like him as an artist, I don’t think that his entry would do very well in Rotterdam, that’s why I would really want to see Elodie there. Elodie’s… Read more »
If the winner declines, will RAI automatically go to second place? Or is it likely they might pick Elodie even if she finishes 12th?
I’m not pretty sure, but I would say that they would ask an artist that wants to do Eurovision and placed the best among them.
If the TOP 3 consists of artists that don’t want to do Eurovision, they would ask the next near artist who is willing to do Eurovision. Let’s hope that Elodie won’t place very low, so that she still has a chance to sing in Rotterdam.
Theoretically they can pick any of the other acts but in practice they’d choose someone who placed high
yes right, and especially who want pay for the cost of partecipation too, depend much on his music farma house, they producers
I think 2nd place just like Francesca Michelin in 2016
Basically there’s no rules about that, so it’s all open. In 2016 they picked Francesca who was 2nd in the final, but everything have changed a lot since that year and the attention on ESC has been growing.
no in the sanremo laws dont write the first runner up go in Rotterdam, maybe rai ask him if they refuse too, ask at the second runner up or rai chosen internally it’s no clear,
They will likely go internal to find any one from the remaining acts who are interested or find someone else.
But in this case, if the winner of Sanremo is not among the 16, they will simply choose one from those.